When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble. Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble _which I suffer_ of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation. The heathen are sunk down in the pit _that_ they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known _by_ the judgment _which_ he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, _and_ all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall _not_ perish for ever. Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail; let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O LORD; _that_ the nations may know themselves _to be but_ men. Selah. This Psalm is a prophecy: its title is “concerning the beautiful youth:” that is, concerning the children that are born anew in Christ, the people of God and the church of God. For the people and sons of God, and his new-born children by faith in Christ, must be conformed to the image of God’s dear Son, Jesus Christ. Christians and the true sons of God are variously afflicted in the world; and the blood of the innocents is daily shed by the fury and cruelty of Satan, raging against the word and the works of God. These are the flourishing and undefiled youth, the sons and children of God, of whom the title of the Psalm speaks; who are blameless, without rebuke, and babes in the midst of wolves, and among a perverse generation. This Psalm has its striking descriptions of persons: and the prophecy which it contains is written in the manner of a thanksgiving: and therefore it may be numbered among the consolatory Psalms. For, (as is generally the case with these spiritual canticles and songs,) the Prophet here speaks in his own person, and in that of all the saints also who are afflicted for the word of God’s sake: all of whom give thanks with wonderful sensations of heart, that God does not forsake his own. But God requires, at times, the tears and the blood of the saints: though he preserves and saves his Church, and renders her invincible against sword or fire, and against all the power of enemies temporal or spiritual, nay, in the midst of blood and death; and he raises her up, as it were, from the blood, slaughter, and ashes of the saints, and makes her flourish again and increase the more, in a wonderful manner, in this and that part of the world: so that many, even of the most bitter enemies, have been converted to the faith, and even a Saul has been made a Paul; and sometimes also the judgments of God have fallen on the wicked, and they have perished before the eyes of the godly.